Three days (including set-up day) have now passed since the gates of Computex 2025 opened – high time for a first small interim assessment before the remaining days become blurred in the usual event vortex. While the temperature in Taipei barely scrapes the 35-degree mark during the day and the humidity then gives you the rest, the heat felt in the exhibition halls is one thing above all: a mixture of GPU waste heat, glossy staging and a flood of buzzwords, above all the omnipresent abbreviation “AI”. Without “AI optimization”, “AI enhancement” or at least “AI-ready”, no product seems to be viable at the moment. Even USB hubs and case fans can now be artificially intelligent – or at least pretend to be. Sometimes the suspicion arises that more intelligence is promised on the label than is contained in the silicon.
However, Computex is not just about technology and appointments – it also offers a welcome opportunity to see familiar faces and meet new colleagues from the industry. Especially in an increasingly digital working environment, the personal exchange on site is a pleasant contrast that is often as inspiring as it is informative.
Let’s start with the headliners. The keynote from Intel marked the start, with the expected self-presentation, but also some exciting details. Lunar Lake was staged in a way that was reminiscent of Lakefield’s past appearances – a construction kit of possibilities that focused primarily on the promise of increased efficiency. The real innovations were in the details: better scheduling, a focus on NPU performance and the subtle but important shift from pure computing power to platform thinking. However, much remains speculation until the launch in the fall.
AMD followed up with the new Ryzen and Threadripper processors, this time with Zen 5 in focus. The announcements were not unexpected, but they were solid. The new Threadripper 9000 series in particular was an eye-catcher – 96 cores, 8-channel DDR5, 128 PCIe 5.0 lanes – that’s not for the masses, but a real signal for many niche markets, workstations and developer environments. And here too, of course: “AI inside”, regardless of whether it makes sense or not. The RX 9600XT was of course already known, but officially announcing it is something else.
Finally, NVIDIA once again made it clear how strongly the company sees its role as an infrastructure provider for AI. The consumer sector, especially at GeForce, was a minor matter; instead, the focus was on “NIMs” (NVIDIA Inference Microservices), proprietary language models and AI stacks. This may be technically impressive, but it also left me with the impression of a certain alienation from the end customer. Nevertheless, the audience in Taipei seemed to accept the change to a “complete AI service provider” without complaint.
However, the real added value of Computex is not in the keynotes anyway, but in the direct contact on the exhibition floor. Over the past few days, I have visited a number of manufacturers, from large OEMs to small component suppliers, who often show the most exciting developments, completely without the PR circus. A redemption.
In addition to these technical encounters, Computex is always a place to cultivate relationships. I consciously make time for discussions away from the stands, whether with long-standing partners or new contacts. This is where a large part of what later flows into articles and analyses is created: not as PR quotes, but as background knowledge. Whether it’s the developer who casually mentions an upcoming board revision or the product manager who admits an interesting dependency between power limits and board partner designs, it’s these pieces of the mosaic that later complete the overall picture.
Of course, I also use the days to update my address book. The exchange with decision-makers, developers, marketing managers and also competitor media is not a minor matter, but an integral part of my daily trade fair routine. This mixture of media work and networking is symbiotic: what I gain in contacts later benefits the editorial depth of my content. And those who build trust often receive information earlier or more precisely.
In this sense, Computex 2025 is once again a place of double observation: What is shown and what is not (yet) said? Where is there real substance and where is it just hot AI air?
The remaining days promise a few more appointments with mainboard manufacturers, cooling specialists and accessory suppliers. A look into smaller halls with embedded systems and production technologies is also still on the agenda, topics that rarely make the headlines but are often groundbreaking for future products.
Until then, my interim conclusion remains ambivalent: On the one hand, technical highlights and valuable discussions, on the other, a certain oversaturation due to ubiquitous “AI fantasies”. But perhaps this is precisely where the art lies: separating the important from the pompous and discovering the real stories between cooler blocks, RAM modules and trade fair stand talks.
Kommentieren